Kill Bill Part II: New Hampshire Senate Sinks Cannabis Legalization, Again

As was expected, New Hampshire’s latest attempt to legalize cannabis failed in the Senate Thursday, with GOP members once again blocking the bill 10 to 4. The outcome was not surprising. Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans had voted to recommend House Bill 639 “inexpedient to legislate” without discussion on Tuesday.

Even with some 70% of residents in support of cannabis legalization, the “Live Free, or Die” State remains the only piece of New England that hasn’t yet done so.

Senator Bill Gannon (R) got right to the point. “Now is not the time for full legalization,” he said.  He then went on to describe some marijuana billboards he had seen down in Massachusetts that he did not feel were appropriate to the “kiddos” of New Hampshire. He didn’t like that.  Then he rambled on about an increase in teen cannabis use, and “more babies would become addicted, born in our hospitals.”

When the time would be right, the Senator didn’t specify. “I for one would never want to be like Massachusetts or Vermont,” Gannon did say, so probably not any time soon.

Senator Donovan Kenton (D) didn’t come out and say he wanted to be Massachusetts, but he did say he would like some of money their neighbor to the south was currently raking in from Granite Staters.  The dispensary parking lots there, he said “are full of license plates that say ‘Live Free, Or Die.’”

And that’s a state they love to hate.

Senator Howard Pearl (R) was concerned that citizens could be out on the State House lawn enjoying a joint, which fourth graders in the audience would smell. “That’s not acceptable to me,” he said.

Senator Becky Whitley (D) had some facts that went toward to dispelling some of the “myths” of legalization, but it was a tough room.  She did however mention that New Hampshire residents had made it “crystal clear” that they wanted cannabis legalized.  “We have to come to the table with solutions,” she said. “They are asking for it.”

The debate went onward, but it didn’t matter.  The outcome had been set long before.

A Full video of the session is available on the New Hampshire Senate’s YouTube channel.